//------------------------------// // Diamond Tiara Likes Shopping For Anime // Story: Diamond Tiara Likes Anime // by Yukito //------------------------------// Diamond Tiara tapped her pen to the paper on her desk, staring down at the sheet with a look of absolute boredom on her face. ‘Don’t know… Don’t know… Never even heard of it…’ She sighed and just gave up, knowing that she wouldn’t pass anyway with the few questions she could actually answer. She looked over to the clock and saw that there were five minutes left. ‘If I could use the Time Spirit, I could just copy off of somepony else’s paper’ she mused, grinning as she recalled the episode where the Time Spirit made its debut. “Five minutes, class!” Cheerilee announced. “Even if you’re not finished, you may want to start checking your answers now.” Diamond didn’t even bother. She knew she had failed; even if all the answers she gave were correct, she only answered enough to get 25%, whereas the pass mark was 40%. “Time’s up! Please leave your papers on your desks, and I will collect them when you leave. Have a good weekend, my little ponies.” The class wished Cheerilee a good weekend, and the students began to file out quickly, all too eager to start their two days of freedom. Diamond Tiara especially. “Hey, blank flank.” Diamond walked outside to see her friend Silver Spoon confronting the Cutie Mark Crusaders. A nice bout of harmless teasing and name-calling after such a stressful test? Diamond Tiara decided she had time for that and approached the four fillies. “You were buying anime yesterday, weren’t you? What are you, five?” Diamond stopped and kept her distance as she listened to the conversation. “Why don’t ya mind yer own business, Silver Spoon?” Apple Bloom said, confronting the grey filly. “Yeah! What should it matter to you what she likes?” Scootaloo added. Sweetie Belle simply nodded, putting on a tough face as she stood in-between her two friends. Silver Spoon simply scoffed and turned to face Diamond Tiara. “Can you believe she’s in the same class as us, when she likes such childish things?” Diamond Tiara faced the crusaders, and then Silver Spoon again. She nodded and then began to walk past the group, causing Silver Spoon to follow her and ask what was up. “Mom’s ill, and daddy wants me to help him take care of her,” she explained as the two walked away from the schoolhouse. “Sorry, we’ll have to hang out some other time.” Silver Spoon continued following Diamond, much to the pink filly’s annoyance. “Well… I could help,” she suggested. Diamond shook her head. “No, I couldn’t trouble you like that.” “It’s not trouble at all,” Silver Spoon said. “And it’s an excuse to get away from my brother for a bit.” Diamond tried to think of some way to lose the filly. She deviated from her planned route, instead following the path she takes to get home. “Silver Spoon!” The two fillies looked at the grey mare that entered their path and who had started approaching them. “Such good timing! Your father and I are redecorating, and we could use an extra set of hooves to help us out!” Silver Spoon pulled away as her mother reached out. “Mother, I’m going round Diamond’s house today!” Diamond Tiara saw her chance and jumped at it. “Oh, no, it seems pretty important, Silver Spoon!” she said, smiling at her friend. “I don’t want to interrupt a family moment! You go on and help your parents out. I’ll be just fine on my own!” Before Silver Spoon could argue, Diamond Tiara bolted down the street, back the way that they had just come from. “What a nice filly,” Silver’s mother said. Silver Spoon watched Diamond Tiara run off with a confused look on her face. ‘She’s going the wrong way…’ Diamond poked her head out from behind a tree on the side of the street. She looked around, to make sure that nopony was looking, and then turned her attention towards her target: the new anime store that had opened up recently in Ponyville. She ducked back behind the tree, and pulled out a black hoodie from her bag, and a pair of shades. She put the hoodie on, pulled up the hood – leaving her tiara on, of course – and put on her shades. She looked around again and walked over to the store. As she entered, she was greeted by the enthusiastic pony at the counter, but only responded with a silent nod. She wandered past the counter and into one of the aisles at random. She looked on in awe at all of the DVDs around her. They were all separated into many different genres: romance, comedy, dark, gore, shoujo, shounen, and more. She even noticed a curtained area, with a sign reading ‘Hentai’, but when she tried to enter she was told that only ponies of eighteen years of age or older could look in that section. She shrugged and decided to check out the shoujo section. As she had hoped, she found Mahou Shoujo Sakura-chan. And four volumes of it, too! They were reasonably priced – ten bits per DVD – but she had to be careful not to buy too much. She didn’t want her dad to find out, after all. “Let’s see… I’ll get these four volumes, and that’s it,” she said to herself, picking up the four DVDs before heading over to the counter. On the way, though, she passed by another series she liked: ‘.hack//Night_Mare’. She had only been able to find a few episodes of that, and the subbing was done so poorly, but she liked the animation, and got the general idea of the story line. “Well… I guess I can get one or two volumes of that,” she said as she picked up volumes one to three. Next to it, there was a DVD that caught her interest, because the main character looked like the one from Gakuen Griffon. She read the title: ‘Full Metal Pony’. She looked at the back, reading the description and looking at some of the images. “This… This looks worth checking out… I’ll have to search for it when I get home.” She put the DVD back down and began to walk away, but stopped when a thought crossed her mind. “But what if I can’t find it? And… what if the DVD’s not here next time I come?” She looked back at the DVD, her mind conflicted over whether to buy it or not. “Heya, Diamond! What’re you looking at?” “This DVD… Should I buy it? If I buy too much…” She stopped and turned her head, slowly. She blinked a few times upon seeing Sweetie Belle smiling at her, and suddenly felt like quickly running out of the store and finding somewhere to hide. Somewhere far away, maybe deep in the Everfree Forest. “Full Metal Pony?” Sweetie Belle asked. “It’s a little violent for my tastes, but to each their own, right?” Diamond must have looked like a total idiot, standing there with her mouth wide open and trembling, because Sweetie Belle gave her the strangest look she had ever seen. “Diamond? Are you okay?” “W-W-W-W-W-” Diamond stopped, closed her eyes, and took a deep, soothing breath. “What are you doing here?!” she asked, as calmly as she could, though it still earned a ‘shush’ from the store’s owner. She tried harder to lower her voice to a whisper. “And how did you know it was me?” Sweetie Belle smiled and held up a few DVDs that she was carrying. “Same as you, I guess. I’m buying some anime.” She giggled as she pointed to the top of Diamond Tiara’s hoodie. “And you’re the only pony in all of Ponyville that wears a tiara at all times. It really wasn’t that hard. Plus your cutie mark and tail are exposed, too.” Diamond Tiara looked over her shoulder, and cursed herself for not thinking of that. She then turned back to Sweetie Belle and tried some of that quick thinking she used on her father whenever he walked in on her watching anime. Fortunately, Sweetie Belle barely knew her, so she could make up all kinds of things and probably get away with it. “I-I’m… D-Don’t misunderstand me! I’m just here to buy a present for my cousin’s birthday party!” “Your cousin likes anime, too?” Diamond groaned and removed her shades, allowing Sweetie Belle to see the rage in her eyes. “No! I mean, he does, but I don’t!” The two were silent for a few moments, with Diamond Tiara huffing and puffing as she glared the other filly down. “… You don’t?” Sweetie Belle asked, to which Diamond Tiara shook her head. “So you didn’t like that episode I sent you yesterday?” Diamond stared at her in disbelief once again. “W-What do you mean?” “You know, the new Detective Ponan episode? With the new character introduced? You signed off before I got back, so we couldn’t talk about it.” Diamond Tiara couldn’t believe it. “H-How did you… I mean, what are you talking about? We didn’t talk yesterday! You know, just because somepony has the word ‘tiara’ in their online username, doesn’t mean it has to be me!” “… Then, how do you know the pony I talked to had ‘tiara’ in their name?” Diamond remained silent at that and slammed a hoof into her face. Of all the stupidest things she could have done… “How long have you known?” “Since the beginning,” Sweetie Belle said, this time surprising Diamond for a different reason. She had known all this time and yet had never said anything to anypony? “You called me ‘blank flank’ the first time we spoke, but I had never told anypony online I was a blank flank. That meant you knew me, and there are only two ponies I know who call me that. And I already have Silver Spoon added.” “You do?” Diamond Tiara asked, finding more questions being raised the longer this conversation went on. She shook the thought away. There would be time for that later, but for now, there was something more important to discuss. “Then, why haven’t you told anypony?” “Uh… told anypony what?” “You know!” Diamond shouted, earning yet another ‘shush’ and a stern glare from the store’s owner. “That I… like anime,” she said, mumbling the last part but still making it audible. Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Why should I? What should it matter what you like?” Diamond’s eyes filled with hope, and she looked at the filly as if she were some kind of grand saviour. “So… you’ll keep this a secret?” Sweetie Belle nodded, though she looked a bit uncertain. “I… guess, if you really want me to…” Diamond Tiara let out a big sigh of relief and did something neither filly thought she would ever do: she hugged Sweetie Belle. “Thank you,” she said, parting soon afterwards and giving her the same glare she usually gave her. “You tell anypony, blank flank, and I’ll make sure you regret it!” Sweetie Belle nodded quickly and Diamond Tiara released her. “Um, why exactly do I have to keep it a secret?” Diamond scoffed at the question and gave her a look as if to tell her that it was obvious why. “Because, if anypony found out, I’d be a laughing stock! You saw how Silver Spoon reacted to you liking this stuff, and I know that daddy certainly wouldn’t approve!” “I dunno,” Sweetie Belle said. “I think you may be overreacting.” “Overreacting?” Diamond asked. “OVERREACTING?!” Sweetie Belle nodded, and Diamond took another soothing breath to calm herself down. “… Just, don’t tell anypony. Got it?” “Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me!” Diamond actually smiled a little at that. “Oh, and that new episode? We’ll chat about it later.” Sweetie Belle’s face beamed to life and the two parted ways on friendly terms. Diamond bought the DVDs that she had picked up and placed them safely into her bag. Now for the hard part: getting home without anypony seeing her leave the store, or carrying these DVDs. “Mornin’, Mr. Rich,” Big Macintosh said as Filthy Rich approached him. “Sorry, Granny’s havin’ her nap right now, but ah got yer order in the barn for ya.” “Thank you,” Filthy Rich said as he followed Big Macintosh towards the farm. “Actually, I wanted to ask you something, Big Macintosh.” Big Mac turned his attention to the other stallion. “Eeyup?” “Well, when your sister Applejack was a filly, and your parents weren’t around, you had to raise her yourself for most of the time, didn’t you?” Big Mac nodded, and Filthy Rich shuffled his hooves nervously on the floor as he tried to find the right words. “Well, I was wondering, since you’re experienced with raising fillies – more so than me, at least – I was wondering if I could ask you for some advice?” Big Mac raised an eyebrow. “Advice?” Filthy Rich nodded. “Diamond has been acting a little strange recently, and I’m not quite sure what to do…” “Strange how?” Filthy Rich told Big Mac all of the details of how Diamond had been acting towards him and her mother recently. How she would rush off to her room as soon as she had finished her dinner, how she jumped out of her seat whenever he went to check up on her, how she always sat there, with an obviously fabricated innocent grin on her face, in front of a computer screen with nothing on it, and how she seemed to be acting more secretive about her life lately. Big Mac laughed, catching the older stallion off guard. “Sorry, Mr. Rich. But honestly, ah don’ think ya need tah worry yerself about it so much.” Filthy Rich almost let out a sigh of relief but held on a bit longer. “Are you sure?” Big Mac nodded. “Eeyup.” He released the sigh. “She’s just growin’ up an’ findin’ out new things. That’s all.”